Hannah Swerbenski
Postdoctoral Associate
- Office Location
- Meliora Hall
Brief Bio
Dr. Hannah Swerbenski is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Mt Hope Family Center and affiliated with the NIH-funded center of excellence, the TRANSFORM Research Center. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Tulane University in 2017, with majors in Psychology, Cognitive Studies, and Asian Studies, as well as a minor in Philosophy. She received both her MA and PhD in Developmental Psychology from the University of Rochester, with specializations in developmental psychopathology and advanced quantitative methods.
Broadly construed, her research interests concern developmental psychopathology, the intergenerational transmission of adversity, and developmental sequelae of child maltreatment. In particular, Dr. Swerbenski is interested in how early experiences of child abuse and neglect impact parenting in the next generation and disentangling physiological and psychological mediating mechanisms of this association. Her current research program expands this line of work to also focus on mechanisms of biological embedding of stress following exposure to childhood sexual abuse, particularly using advanced longitudinal modeling methods.
Dr. Swerbenski uses a variety of quantitative methods in her research, including structural equation modeling and person-centered approaches. She strives to capture multilevel and multimethod data and has expertise in narrative and observational coding methods as well as measure development. In line with strengths-based approaches, she seeks to identify protective factors that may buffer or break associations between early adversity and negative developmental sequelae in her research. These strengths-based approaches dove-tail with her current work on child sexual abuse prevention and community education. Dr. Swerbenski also promotes science communication to broader audiences in her role curating Fact Sheet content for the TRANSFORM Community Engagement Core and nonpartisan policy advocacy work.
View Dr. Swerbenski’s publications here: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Hannah-Swerbenski.